MBO off at Computacenter

Year-end spike boosts 2005 figures

A management buyout bid at Computacenter’ has been terminated, meaning the dealer giant’s shares will stay on the stock market – for now at least.

The bid emerged last November. It was led by Computacenter co-founder Peter Ogden and encompassed senior executive management at the firm.

However, the firm announced today that the discussions had “not progressed to an offer and have now terminated.” Actually, reports back in November suggested a preliminary bid had been made, but had been rejected by independent directors. A new bid was expected, by the financial press at least, but the MBO team decided otherwise.

Analysts Ovum Holway quoted Computacenter CEO Mike Norris saying he was “pretty relaxed” about the demise of the MBO, and saying taking the company private was never a “MUST”.

Still, now that the uncertainty over the bid has been cleared, Computacenter has been able to issue a trading update. Pre-tax profit for the year to 31 December should come in at £32-34m, “materially ahead of market expectations”. The company said it saw “unusually strong demand” at year end.

UK trading in the third quarter was slow, it added, but perked up in the fourth quarter. Germany was “encouraging” in both quarters, with France showing an improved second half performance.®